Opening Weekend

Opening weekend

It was an interesting and learning weekend for us.  We played our first league matches against University of Regina.  Regina has become a pretty good rivalry for us.  They always play us tough.  Plus in Canada West it is extremely hard to win on the road.  Our schedule then becomes very important. 

I felt we were really prepared on Friday and have been practicing well all week. We ran a continuous drill on Weds that we struggled with earlier in the year.  We struggled to get the ball to continuously cross the net 15 times as we rotated around the court.  This time we achieved 50 overs in the drill.  We discussed how much we have improved and some athletes even commented "how was that drill hard before" We won the first set on some strong serving.  Regina pushed us all the way and for some reason we looked nervous and unsure of our self.  In one of the time outs we talked about confidence and fighting for it.  It is a choice of us to allow the other team to take away our confidence.  We need to fight for it.  We battled the rest of the way.  We were down 2 sets to 1 and we battled back to win a convincing fourth set.  The fifth set is always a risky situation.  This set feels like a sprint to a finish.  We lost 15-13.  We won every statistical number we could except digs.  Yet Regina won the match.  This happens when one team wins two of their sets by a big margin and lose close.

We were all extremely disappointed.  After the match we went through our regular post match discussion.  I was really frustrated, more with myself then the team.  Our effort was strong.  If we maintain our effort and correct our focus we will be better the next day.  In my younger coaching I would have blasted the team after the match, but really it wouldn't help improve our situation.  Plus our effort was there. 

When we went through our stats we decided if they beat us by 12 digs and that was the only stat they beat us in, then that would be our focus.  We needed 10 digs to beat their total.  We didn't need to reinvent the wheel; we needed 2 more digs a set.  That seems really simple but that was all we really needed.  Our discussion in the morning just was a refocusing on our system and showed the team that we were in the right spot more than not.  We just needed to dig the ball up.  We started our adjustment mantra of 2 more digs each.

Our serve and pass practice started with defense from coaches off a box. I am not a big fan of hitting off boxes at the athletes.  We eliminate some of the most important cues for the defenders. Today this is just to get a feel of digging the ball up, a controlled situation to get some confidence in the different situations.  We then went quickly to live attackers with no middle blocker, then we added the middle.  This progression seemed to help us understand our depth on seams and on closed blocks. In the morning during breakfast I read online two articles about how mood affects cues.  That people who are happier tend to see more cues and look at things in a broader way.  People who are angry, nervous, and tense seem to look at thinks with blinders on. The article stated that research has found that cues are more readily recognized when people are happier.  We also took time to discuss their vision pattern with some of the athletes.  We have to know where to look in order to react to the cues. Our serve practice was really upbeat.  We had some fun in it

We came out in the match with a ton of energy.  We were serving tough.  Chloe decided to get the 2 more digs a set all on her own.  The first 8 points she had 4 digs that we were able to transition to points.  That set the tone and the rest of the team followed suit.  We cut their attack percentage in half.  Of Friday their efficiency was 25%.  (kills-error/total) Saturday we held them to 12%.  Our team goal is to keep the opposition under 20%.  It was a fun match to coach in.  The athletes were in a groove, discussing early what was happening and then working together to try a limit the other team’s opportunities.  We have always prided our team in our ball control When we were out defended it was a good character check for us.  We responded well.

We returned to Brandon at 2:30 am after the match.  The young first year players and myself had a fundraising commitment in Winnipeg on Sunday.  We had to be back together at 3pm and head in to Winnipeg in a van.  The young athletes were impressive very upbeat and had fun together.  They were studying most of the way.  I learned a bit more about each of them.  I have to admit that Jasmine kicked my but in name that tune.  The worst part it was my playlist.  She really knows her old rock and country. 

This week we have our sport psych meeting.  This is one of our most important meetings as Dr. Skinner is introducing courageous conversations.  Even though right now we have a strong team image and team concept, eventually every team goes through some kind of adversity.  This class session sets the tone for how to deal with some things athlete to athlete.  Plus it is an amazing skill to learn for their careers post sport.  I will discuss this session more in depth next week.